Voyaging

A Glimpse of the good life along the Cote d’Azur aboard Feadship's 152-foot Megayacht Audacia.

Saint-Tropez

Photos by Jim Raycroft

Sailboats gathered in Saint Tropez for the regatta.

During breakfast, we headed further west, down the coast to Saint Tropez, where dozens of sailboats were getting ready for a regatta the next day. Crowds had crammed into the port to watch the crews raising sails and scrubbing off salt, as well as to mingle with numerous artists who had set up displays of their work. The excitement was enticing but I had another city to explore. A stop at the tourism office yielded a €2 map outlining a walking tour of the major sites, including old fortifications and the pink and yellow clock tower at L’Eglise Notre Dame de L’assomption, which is visible from most points in the city. One of my favorite shops along the route was the atelier of Ivan Hor, a local artist who combines painting, photography, and tiny origami paper boats.

For lunch I chose a favorite of the casual-but-well-heeled crowd, Le Club 55, just around the point from Saint-Tropez harbor and accessible by both tender and taxi. I chose tender, and as we approached an alarmingly rickety dock, a man in an official Club 55 RIB informed us that it was broken and I’d need to use his service to get ashore. So tender to tender to pier to shore, I went.

During high season, many recognizable faces frequent the restaurant, which features tightly packed worn wooden tables under seagrass-covered driftwood structures. But by the end of September, when I was there, the bold-faced names had moved on to more tropical climates. I ordered a perfectly cooked artichoke to start, and for the main course, paella overflowing with seafood on a bed of saffron rice, all accompanied by a 2009 ros from Domaine de Jeanne, a local winery. The visit to Club 55 inspired a last-minute, nine-person dinner party of friends onboard Audacia for which Chef Jimmy prepared Thai beef salad, local organic chicken, and an almond tart for dessert.